Cult Magic
=What is Cult?= * Cult is about a blood magic cult that has infiltrated the station, with the ultimate goal to make this world part of Nar-Sie's realm, the Geometer of Blood. * At the start of the game, 4 crew members with Cult enabled in their preferences will be designed as the starting cultists. * Each one of them will know which cult word translates to either "Join", "Blood", "Self", or "Hell". Meaning that they have to communicate early on to share their starting words so they can more easily learn new ones. * Learning all the cult words requires a varying amount of time, and is required for cultists to exploit their powers to the maximum. Thus, cultists are encouraged to play as stealthy as they can in the beginning. * On top of knowing a first word, the 4 starting cultists are also gifted with the most important "supply talisman" which we'll describe a bit further down. Think of it as a syndicate uplink for cultists. * Once in possession of an Arcane Tome, cultists are able to draw runes from their blood. (Note: detectives can use their scanners on the runes and identify the cultist from his DNA) * Cultists may use their Arcane Tome directly on a rune to erase it. * Everyone on the station may be converted by cultists, EXCEPT the Captain (yes, even if he has his loyalty implant removed. Better kill him and turn him into a construct) * The Chaplain's Null Rod will protects its bearer from a few runes (such as the convert rune). It can also be applied on a floor tile to reveal any rune that a cultist might have hidden there, and erase such rune. * The Chaplain's Bible can as well de-convert cultists. Apply directly to forehead until you get notified that the cultist has reverted to his old faith. Making a cultist drink Holy Water works too. * The cultists have only one active objective at a time. They unlock new objectives by completing the previous ones. They first objectives can vary from sacrifice a high value target (whether the target is alive or dead at the time of the sacrifice doesn't matter), spreading blood over the station, or convert half the crew. * After a few objectives are completed or some other conditions are met, the cult gets the objective to summon Nar-Sie. The rune allowing them to do so will now be working. * If the cult manages to summon Nar-Sie, the shuttle is automatically called and arrives after 10 minutes, during which monsters pop over the station, all the APCs are drained and the power goes offline, harvesters appear to try to sacrifice the remaining humans, and the station gradually turns into a gigantic cult building. In short, teamwork is the key. Cultist is a role offering many options and possibilities. Learn your runes and for the love of Nar-Sie USE THEM!! Cult Magic Cult Magic is what being a cultist is all about. To use this magic you need to have an Arcane Tome and draw runes with proper words. The drawing is made with your own blood, and you'll take some very light brute damage each time you draw a rune or use a talisman, this damage will usually heal itself by the time you write the next rune. Some runes such as Blood Boil or Summon Cultist will take quite a toll on your body and might require a roll of gauze to stop any bleedings. Once the rune is drawn, watch it closely. If your rune has been written properly, you'll see it glow by pulses. If you've written a rune that doesn't exist, it won't pulse at all (see picture). Click on it to chant an invocation. If all the conditions are met, the rune effects should trigger. Note that some runes' effects may produce noises/messages visible to other players, even through walls. image:Runeactive.gif Starting/Supply Talisman 64px This tool is awarded to all the starting cultists, in their backpack. Unlike the talismans produced from the "Imbue Talisman" rune, this one has 5 charges that let you summon various imbued talismans, as well as materials to create constructs. You may want to rely on the imbued talismans as little as possible as you'll be able to produce some yourself later on, however you'll definitely have to use it to summon an Arcane Tome. Plus, if you keep a few charges in this talisman, it might offer you some getaways in a pinch, later in the round. Talisman Options The Supply Talisman let's you summon the following imbued talismans: * N'ath reth sh'yro eth d'raggathnor! - Summon Tome - Allows you to summon a new Arcane Tome. * Sas'so c'arta forbici! - Teleport - Allows you to move to a rune with the same last word. * Ta'gh fara'qha fel d'amar det! - EMP - Allows you to disable technology in a short range. * Kla'atu barada nikt'o! - Hide Runes - Allows you to conceal the runes you placed on the floor. * O bidai nabora se'sma! - Communicate - Allows you to coordinate with others of your cult. * Fuu ma'jin - Stun - Allows you to stun a person by attacking them with the talisman. Stunned crewmembers are unable to talk for a while. As well as the following item and structure: * Kal om neth - Summons a soul stone. * Da A'ig Osk - Summons a construct shell for use with captured souls. It is too large to carry on your person. The Arcane Tome 64px The Arcane Tome is the most important item for any cultist. It is used to draw runes with your blood, and erase them. It also contains some basic info on the runes you can use. And more importantly, let's you store all the words that you've learned. The Arcane Tome is a concealed item: it has no in-hand sprite. However people will still notice that you're holding one if they examine you. Once you edit a word in the Tome's notes, the word will appear translated when you try to write a rune. Hitting someone with a tome has a chance to deal some burn damage, but don't rely on it. One important thing to remember: if you summon additional tomes (for you or for your converts), then you can use your translated tome on the new tome to copy all the words you've translated in it. Note:Interestingly, if you use the See Invisible rune and some ghosts come close to you, you may hit them with your Tome to make them visible and able to talk to everyone, which might be a bad idea or a terrible idea, depending on whether the ghosts are jerks, or whether they're simply going to follow you around, blowing your cover, preventing you from clicking on items, and in general confirming to everyone on the station that the round is Cult. At the Start Fantastic, you've been chosen by Nar-Sie to do his bidding. At the beginning of the round, you start out with a Supply Talisman in your backpack. Resist use it right then and there. Wait until there is no one else around and the AI is looking somewhere else, then use it to summon a Communicate talisman which you'll use to share the following informations: * your cult word * your name * your job * any additional info (what you're planning to do; what place would be suitable as a cult base; etc...) There is no word limit on Communicate so feel free to take your time and tell everything you can to help coordinate with your fellow cultists. Then use summon a Tome, fill the notes with your word and any word that you got from your partners (Communicate messages appear in purple), and store the Supply Talisman in the internals box of your backpack. If expecting a suprise search from security, feel free to hide your tome or paper somewhere safe, like an unused paper bin or some locker in maintenance. Setting up If you are setting up in a place AI has camera access to, the first thing you should do is deconstruct them. Simply turning off its Power wire will have it show up at "disabled" on the security cameras computers, and you don't want to raise suspicion. So grab a multitool and something to protect your eyes, pulse all wires until you find the one that beeps: that's the alarm wire, cut all the wires but that one. Then weld down the camera and hide the assembly in a locker. The AI is stealth-cultist's worst enemy, it must not have ANY chance to notice you. Thankfully, it can only see runes as blood stains. Important: You should also choose an area remote from the main hallways or frequently visited places, as the Detective's thermal eyepatch is a thread second only to the AI. How to Research Words Now you've started researching words. The best way to do this is start by using two known words then going down the list to fill in the last word. A good order to get runes is: # convert # blood drain/teleport # wall # ghost # summon tome # stun # imbue Of course it depends on which starting words you got and who shared theirs with you. (if no other cultist has shared his word after 10 minutes, then feel free to ahelp) And if you're really bad at cult, you may just sacrifice dead people and hope that Nar-Sie feels like giving you words. (note that you may sacrifice humanized monkeys) You might want to set up a Teleport rune in your hideout as soon as you can. If you are planning on making teleport talismans, have one Teleport rune with a unique word, so that every time you use a teleport talisman with this word, you teleport to that rune. If not, just set up a teleport rune which connects to a rune on the station, that's how you will be able to enter and leave the hideout. You can have up to 10 teleport networks, so you can set up a whole portal room, with different runes leading to different places on the station. Finally, ensure that no intruders can enter the hideout by setting up and activating wall runes at all entrances. Your hideout is now ready, use it for all kinds of your cultist needs Improving your Cult Base Some good places for a base are the Mining Station/Research Outpost, the Pirate Ship, or some out of the way place in maintenance (Virology maint and Xenobiology maint) can make great cult bases once you've deconstructed all the cameras in there, and can be enlarged to the whole of viro/xenobio once you've converted a few people in your division/are confident enough with your power... A perfect cult base should have the following runes at all times in it: * Wall at the entrance, should give you some time to prepare if someone uninvited comes in. * Imbue Talisman next to a paper bin, having a cultist dedicated to producing talismans can make cultists an unstoppable force. Have stacks of Stun/EMP/Cult Armor talismans ready. * Teleport linked either to another base, or to an invisible teleport rune, which you'd use as an emergency exit. * 2 or 3 EMP runes near the entrance to disable any cyborg and to empty sec's laser guns. * Sacrifice, even if you don't plan on sacrificing anyone, it'll help you to dispose of any cyborg disabled by your EMPs. (you still need 3 cultists to use it) * See Invisible, being able to converse with ghosts is an underestimated perk. * Astral Journey, gives you all the advantages of being a ghost, but takes a toll on your body over time. * Cult Armor, because if your cover is blown, you might as well go full postal on the fuckers. Not to mention that those robes and hood give very decent armor. optional: * Hide Rune, mainly for your first cult base, early in the game, if you hear someone come and don't want to blow your cover just yet. * Convert, though Convert runes are best placed near the people you intend to stun, and erased right after. But sometimes some people may willingly come to join your cult get sacrificed for Nar-Sie and your enjoyment. Cult Activities Freeing captured cultists Just found out one of your cult buddies has he been captured by sec? You can use the Free Cultist rune to get him out of cuffs, DNA tubes, Even welded and/or locked closets! then if you are quick enough you can use the Summon cultist rune to get him to the lair or wherever the rune is located. This is great for saving cultists that are caught by security. (you'll need two other cultists/constructs to use the runes though) Mind the damage inflicted by those runes though. Fighting Security Security will generally rely on their tazers, energy guns and stunbatons to fight the cult. A single EMP talisman can get you rid of all these threats at once, along with a chance of stunning nearby secborgs. Stun talismans work on all beings, INCLUDING borgs. You should always carry one in your pocket. The cult armor+hood offer better protection than the sec officers' default armor, so get dressed once you've drained their eguns. Remember to remove your hat and exosuit before using the talisman/rune. Strength is in numbers. If you're already at ease with the above mentioned tips, you should carry a soulstone or two to grow your army as you fight. Exploiting Manifested Ghosts Even if you're the last cultist left on the station, you may summon Nar-Sie or use other runes that require more than one cultist. The Manifest Ghost rune can be spammed to summon as many Manifested Ghosts as there are Ghosts standing on your tile. Manifested ghosts are extremely durable, and can use any item/piece of clothing that normal humans can use, and even use runes, or count as cultists for runes that require multiple cultists, but all your ghosts will die at once if you leave the rune or die. Furthermore, you take damage per second FOR EACH GHOST THAT YOU MANIFEST, so this exploit isn't free of charge. You could theoretically sustain a small troup of manifested ghosts if someone was constantly supplying you with tricordrazine/bicaridine/etc... However you only need to have them for a fraction of second to summon Nar-Sie (remember that you can place runes on top of each others). And every manifested ghost that participate in Nar-Sie's summoning will be turned into an Harvester as well. Sacrificing Can't find your target? use an Astral Journey rune to Ghost yourself and Follow your target. Frequently re-enter your body and use Communicate runes to transmit the target's movements to your fellow cultists. If only one other cultist is available to go capture the target, ask him to draw a Teleport Other rune and drag the target and himself on top of it, while 3 cultists draw another Teleport Other rune linked to the same word to bring your target back to your base, where you'll be able to sacrifice him. Oh Noes! I got deconverted Well sucks for you. You're not longer part of the cult, and no long have ANY memories of the time you spent as a cultist. Spilling the beans on the entire cult after being deconverted (or even worse, before) is a good way to earn a role-ban from cult at best, a permaban at worse. At the very most you may remember the name of whoever converted you, and where it happened. Constructs Using the Supply Talisman, cultists are able to summon soulstones and empty shells, which can be used to bring forth an army of constructs! On top of that, constructs created by cultists count as cultists themselves, allowing them to summon Nar-Sie or escape on the shuttle fo fulfill their objectives. You might want to turn conversion-resistant crewmembers such as the Captain into constructs. A wise move is to create an artificer first, which saves you valuable points on the supply-paper. The Runes 64px Each rune contains three words written in unknown dialect. There are 10 words used for rune scribing, what they mean in english is: "travel", "self", "see", "Hell", "blood", "join", "technology", "destroy", "hide", "other". Your Arcane tome however, is written in an unknown dialect and initially you know none of the words. There are 2 ways to find out meaning of unknown words. First, you can simply use sacrifice rune to sacrifice humans and monkeys, with each sacrifice comes a chance to suddenly remember a rune word. The other way is through trial and error. Knowing 2 out of 3 words needed for some rune, you can find out the last word with just a little bit of experimentation. Don't forget, all proper runes will have their sprite periodically pulse, while failed runes use flat, non-animated sprites. Teleport "Sas'so c'arta forbici!" "Travel Self third word" Teleport rune is a special rune, as it only needs two words, with the third word being destination. Basically, when you have two runes with the same destination, invoking one will teleport you to the other one. If there are more than 2 runes, you will be teleported to a random one. Since there are 10 words, you can create 10 independent teleport networks. You can imbue a teleport rune into a talisman, which will then teleport you to the destination rune upon use. You cannot have more than 5 runes on a network, or they will disappear when you try to use them. Teleport other "Sas'so c'arta forbici tarem!" "Travel Other third word" Allows you to swap the items and mobs standing on the rune with those standing on another Teleport Other rune with the same third word. You need 3 cultists to activate the swap. This allows you to teleport even non-cultists around. You cannot have more than 2 runes with the same last word, or they will disappear when you try to use them. Summon a tome "N'ath reth sh'yro eth d'raggathnor!" "See Blood Hell" While just having a henchman cultist is useful, he will be of much more help if he has an arcane tome to create runes. This rune simply summons a new arcane tome. Always have one hidden somewhere so that you can get a new tome in case you lose your current one. Cult Armor/Change Construct Type "Sa tatha najin!" "Hell Destroy Other" Someone has to stand on the rune for it to work, and its effects will vary depending on who is on the rune. * For humans and monkeys, it allows you to summons the robes of the followers of Nar-Sie. Includes: Robes(exosuit), Hood, Boots, Backpack, and Cult Blade. The Cult Blade will drop on the ground if your hands are full, but the other clothes will only appear if the corresponding slot in your equipment is empty. Wearing the cult robes is the easiest way to blow your cover, so for the love of Nar-Sie do NOT summon these early in the round. If you intend to stay in your cult base at all times or the cult is greatly increasing in power through the station though, feel free to wear these at all time. The Robes and the Hood offer very decent protection. * If it's a construct that is standing on the rune, the human/harvester activating the rune will be given a prompt allowing him to change the construct's type, either Artificer, Wraith or Juggernaut (and if Nar-Sie has risen, Harvester as well) Convert "Mah'weyh pleggh at e'ntrath!" "Join Blood Self" The first and the most important rune is a rune to convert other people into cultists. To make the person a cultist, you need to put him on top of the rune, and then invoke it. Contrary to popular belief, this work on everyone and anyone, even Security, Heads of Staff, and those with loyalty implants. It works on everyone with the sole exception of the Captain, or those bearing the null rod. Remember that converting everyone you come across might not be the best choice (unless the shuttle has been called, then go crazy), quality over quantity. This isn't fucking Rev. EMP "Ta'gh fara'qha fel d'amar det!" "Destroy See Technology" Does exactly what you think it does. Has a fairly limited range though. If you're lucky, a single EMP might be enough to disable a borg. Drain Blood "Yu'gular faras desdae. Havas mithum javara. Umathar uf'kal thenar!" "Travel Blood Self" This rune instantly heals you of some brute damage, at the expense a person placed on top of the rune. Whenever you invoke a drain rune, ALL drain runes on the station are activated, draining blood from anyone located on top of those runes. This includes yourself, though the blood you drain from yourself just comes back to you. This might help you identify this rune when studying words. One drain gives up to 25HP per each victim, but you can repeat it if you need more. Draining only works on living people, so you might need to recharge your "Battery" once its empty. Blood Hunger: Draining over 50 HP in one gulp intoxicates you, making you want more. You will keep slowly losing health until the hunger goes away or is satisfied. This also means that draining yourself is not a good idea as it makes it more likely to reach the amount of blood needed for blood hunger. See Invisible "Rash'tla sektath mal'zua. Zasan therium viortia." "See Hell Join" This nice rune does exactly as it says. It allows you to see invisible objects and people as long as you stay on top of the rune. Most importantly, it lets you see ghosts, this might help you when working in conjunction with a resurrection rune. But it also works on hidden runes, cloakers, and aliens who use invisibility. Resurrect "Pasnar val'keriam usinar. Savrae ines amutan. Yam'toth remium" "Blood Join Hell" So the cloner is blown up? This rune is exactly what you need then. However, unlike the cloning pod, it will not make a body out of nothing, so preparations are needed. To make the rune work, you will need two bodies: a living one, and a dead one. Living body will provide the life essence, while the dead body will provide a vessel for your friend. Put a dead body on the rune, and then have the ghost of your friend stand directly on top of it. Then put a living non-AFK human body on top of a different resurrect rune (putting it on the same one might or might not work). Note that the living body can be yourself, so don't stand on the rune when invoking it if you dont want to sacrifice yourself. If everything is done right, the dead body will be alive and at full health again, controlled by the ghost who was on top of that rune, while the living guy is immediately gibbed. This is the price for the life of a cultist, another life. If there are multiple ghosts on top of a dead body when its resurrected, only one of them will be resurrected. Hide Runes "Kla'atu barada nikt'o!" "Hide See Blood" This handy rune, which you can also make with your starting talisman, makes nearby runes invisible. Note, however, that you cannot invoke the runes if you can't see them, so you need to either use a "see invisible" rune, or use a reveal rune. This rune is useful for revealing support runes that you do not activate directly. For example, a teleport rune in a safe place where you can teleport to with a teleport talisman. Reveal runes "Nikt'o barada kla'atu!" "Blood See Hide" Need to activate that rune you have hidden, but dont know the words for a See Invisible rune? Well now your hide rune always comes with its sister - the Reveal rune! Just reverse the wording order of the Hide rune, and you will get a rune that reveals all hidden runes in large area around itself. Astral Journey "Fwe'sh mah erl nyag r'ya!" "Hell Travel Self" This rune allows you to leave your mortal body and become a ghost. This comes with all those benefits of being a ghost, being able to communicate with other ghosts, seeing invisible, following specific people and so on. Of course, you are unable to control your body as a ghost, and if you fly away, you will have no idea if something is happening to it. You can re-enter your body the same way as you re-enter corpse as a regular ghost. The body itself slowly receives damage while you are ghosted, and if it is removed from the rune, you will not be able to re-enter it so beware. Manifest Ghost "Gal'h'rfikk harfrandid mud'gib!" "Blood See Travel" This rune is close to the resurrect spell, but works differently. It does not need any dead bodies or sacrifices, just you and a ghost both standing on top of a rune. You also might want to put a paper with a name on the rune if you want your manifested ghost to have a name, else he will appear as unknown currently broken, fucking paper code. Once invoked, a Manifested Ghost will appear right where you stand. This being can do anything a human can do, except: being turned into a monkey, being turned into a slime, being cloned, having its DNA modified, being affected by the staff of change. They are stuck with their Manifested Ghost condition. You, however, will be constantly receiving damage. Once you die or leave the rune, the ghost is banished from the body, which will turn to dust and leave some remains. You can summon multiple ghosts at once, and will receive scaling damage in consequence. Imbue Talisman "H'drak v'loso, mir'kanas verbot!" "Hell Tech Join" This handy little rune imbues an empty piece of paper with the power of an adjacent rune. It only works with EMP, Cult Armor, Summon Tome, Hide Rune, Reveal rune, Teleport, Communicate, Blind and Deafen runes. Have a rune of mentioned type beside the imbue rune, put a blank piece of paper on the imbue rune, invoke it. You will now have a 1-use talisman with the power of the target rune. Remember that using a talisman deals you some damage. Sacrifice "Barhah hra zar'garis!" "Hell Blood Join" The sacrifice rune is used to gib people, while also getting a chance to remember cult word. You might remember words you already know though, so the rune is mainly used when it is your objective to sacrifice a specific person (or if you want to gib a stunned borg). You can sacrifice dead bodies and monkeys alone, but to sacrifice a living human or your target you will need to have 3 cultists chanting by the rune. Sacrificing a living human is very likely to yield a positive result for you. You can sacrifice humans, monkeys, borgs, MoMMI, and AI intellicards (should they contain the mind of your target) Wall "Khari'd! Eske'te tannin!" "Destroy Travel Self" This rune magically thickens the air above it, making an invisible wall. You invoke the rune to create a wall, and invoke it again to remove the wall, so it works pretty much like a doorway for cultists. Trigger an Hide Runes, and it becomes hell of a pain for non-cultists to figure whats going on and how to remove it. Summon Cultist "N'ath reth sh'yro eth d'rekkathnor!" "Join Other Self" This rune has two different usages depending on the number of cultists next to it when using it: * When used with less than 3 cultists next to it, its user will get the list of all the current non-braindead/non-catatonic followers in the cult. Useful to do get a quick estimate of how many crew members are cultists, and which ones. * When used with 3 or more cultists next to it, its user will be able to summon any cultist (non-construct) to the rune, as long as he isn't handcuffed/buckled/inside a closet. This power will deal some medium brute damage to all the summoning cultists, as well as the summoned cultist, so this power should be used carefully. Free Cultist "Khari'd! Gual'te nikka!" "Travel Technology Other" A nice compliment to the above Summon Cultist rune: * When used with less than 3 cultists next to it, its user will get the list of all the currently restrained cultists. Useful to see if someone got captured by security, so you can prepare to rescue them. * When used with 3 or more cultists next to it, its user will be able to break the bindings (handcuffs, locked/welded lockers, locked dna scanners) of any currently restrained cultist. Note that this power also deals some damage to all the cultists near the rune, so using both Free Cultist and Summon Cultist one after the other, while very effective to break an ally out of the brig, will take its toll on all the involved cultists. Have a bunch of gauze ready as bleedings are almost guaranteed to occur. Deafen "Sti' kaliedir!" "Hide Other See" This rune temporarily makes all non-cultists in visible range deaf. You can imbue this rune into a talisman, it will have the same range, but the duration of deafness will be shorter. Blind "Sti' kaliesin!" "Destroy See Other" Blind rune works exactly the same way as the deafen rune, except it blinds everyone in visible range. Blood Boil "Dedo ol'btoh!" "Destroy See Blood" A very dangerous rune, which also requires 3 cultists invoking it for it to work. When invoked, it deals massive damage to all non-cultists in visual range, usually sending them to crit right away. It still hurts a little the cultists invoking it. Plus, there is a probability the rune will simply explode after being invoked, badly damaging everything in a small radius around it. So unless you are using it as an harvester, be mindful of consequences. Communicate "O bidai nabora se'sma!" "Self Other Technology" This spell allows you to easily (and very safely) communicate with your cult members. Invoke it, type a message, and it will be transmitted to all cult members in big, purple letters so they surely won't miss it. You can get one with your starting talisman, and you can imbue a paper with it as well. Stun "Fuu ma'jin!" "Join Hide Technology" Unlike other runes, this one is supposed to be used in talisman form. When invoked directly, it simply releases some dark energy, briefly stunning everyone around (yourself and other cultists included). When imbued into a talisman, you can force all of its energy into one person, stunning him so hard he cant even speak. However, the effect wears off rather fast. It should still be enough time for you to get them to a close convert rune. This talisman is basically a cult version of stun baton. Stun time is rather short (15 ticks), and mute time is even shorter (5 ticks) but unlike other weapons, it can be concealed and not visible when held in hand. Use it to stun candidates for conversion in case they refuse to join you, or robust the security with these. Tear Reality "Tok-lyr rqa'nap g'lt-ulotf!" "Hell Join Self" The ultimate rune. Creates a tear in reality that expands the realm of Nar-Sie to our universe. Using this rune is the ultimate objective of the cult, however you may only use it once summoning Nar-Sie is your current objective (aka, all the previous objectives have been completed). This rune needs 9 cultists/constructs/manifested ghosts around it. The cultists and manifested ghosts participating in the ritual will then become Harvester constructs. Furthermore, the rune has a channelling time. It takes 6 seconds by default, plus 5 seconds for every Manifested Ghosts taking part in the ritual. Should you try to use the rune with nothing but Manifested Ghosts and yourself, the summoning would then take 53 seconds, and with each Ghost dealing you 1 brute damage per second as you sustain them, you'd take 424 brute damage by the time you complete the channelling, enough to kill a fully healthy human twice. So you WILL have to coordinate with the rest of the cult. Only use Manifested Ghosts if there are only one or two missing cultists. Category: Jobs Category:Game Modes Category:Guides